Oxymoron In The Tropics

 Today I read an interesting article on Medium. Medium author Dad Is FIRE wrote about the most important money lessons you'll ever teach your kids.  A lot of the info are common sense (or should I use the word 'uncommon'?) but one got my attention. Sorry, you need to have a Medium membership to read the article, so I'll just talk about it here. Dad Is Fire said that solving problems leads to wealth. Money flows to solutions. The biggest fortunes aren’t built by working more hours, but by fixing problems. I immediately thought of one of my favourite inventors Rodney the blue robot whose guiding mantra was 'See A Need, Fill A Need'.   This is exactly the same thing that underpins the Design Thinking process that teams use to solve problems in the corporate world.   So filling a need can lead to wealth because people will be happy to pay for a solution to their problem. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most amazing ones.

I learned early how to excel at something.  I just needed to do it over and over and over again until others have given up and until I know it better than anybody else in the vicinity.  The only thing I had to overcome was my tendency to get bored fast.  So I also learned to short-circuit this tendency by switching focus to other things but things that are still related to that something I wanted to excel at.  For example, in university, I had to master Lewis structures.  After a few dots and dashes, it got a bit boring.  So I diverged into finding out who Gilbert Lewis was and where he lived and why he came up with these structures (and who came up with dot diagrams)... well, you get the picture.  I went to the library (no Internet in my day) and borrowed books that had nothing to do with my upcoming exams.  None of my friends wanted to study with me.  But I understood Lewis structures a shade better than my other course-mates.  Altho...

When I first started teaching Form Six students many eons ago, the only things on my mind were finishing the syllabus (I was teaching Literature, besides English Language) and polishing their abilities to retain information, organise information into the form required by the question and present the info in an academic fashion.  However now, things have changed.  Not only do I have to scrabble my way along the minefield of today's schools (mines that begin with e- or online-), I also find myself having to deal with social pitfalls.  Not MY social pitfalls,  THEIRS. And one of the most interesting is their chosen email addresses.  Yeah well, let's deal with one social pitfall at one time.   One of the ways I make sure my MUET students at the very least know how to attach a document to their email is by asking them to send me their homework via email.  I do this because I want to ensure that they arrive at university campuses with rudimentary knowle...

When I was much younger and more impatient with the world, I had difficulties dealing with people who did 'stupid things'.  Such as : - not releasing an important report because it was incomplete (what was incomplete was a minor detail, such as page numbers). As a result, the report missed its deadline. - not answering a question, even though he knew the answer because ' it wasn't his job '. - teachers inconveniencing students about attendance at certain school activities because they cannot make sensible judgments of their own.  E.g. A school I won't mention set a date for all students to come and update their clubs and societies' files and reports.  So a student who had already completed his work asked to be excused from that particular activity.  The teacher demanded that he attend school that day as 'arahan sudah keluar' (instructions have been issued).  So the student asked what was he to do since he had already finished his work.  The teach...

I promised myself I'd create a list of realizations/ideas/strategies for penolong kanan (senior assistants) once I had enough experience as one. Well, since I've been transferred, I won't have any more time to gather experience. Therefore below is the List compiled by one with only 28 months' experience. a) Remember always that you are dealing with people. They are not unfeeling documents that can be filed away. Take time to win their trust. Take the effort to keep their trust. Take pains to find out what makes them tick. Without the staff backing you up, you are like a ship standing dead in the water. b) Begin the day with a smile. And try to remember that no staff ever begins their day by thinking,"What rule shall I break today?" So whenever I face a problem with staff, I will always ask myself why this person is doing this and what could be influencing his or her actions. I dare to say that in my 28 months, I have yet to meet a person who deli...

A friend called me up recently to bemoan the fact of his single status. "How do I find that one perfect girl???" Such an ageless question. I think for as long as there are people alive on this planet (and off!), this will always be a question echoing in minds and hearts. Whether the query is from a male or female. As someone who has been through that wringer and emerged relatively unscathed (with just a scratch or ten), I can safely say...to all those who are still 'suffering', "Have faith and be patient...it's not going to be easy, confronting all those well-meaning ppl who keep tsking and clucking,"Why are you being so choosy...blah blah blah..." What do they know anyway? But, as always, the worst 'critic' is yourself. I made it easier for myself during my single days by holding to a few principles: 1) Everyone is my friend and all of them are potential fun planners & partners :) 2) To be married to the wrong person is a million...

One of the questions I always get from people around me is..."What do I do now? How do I decide?" Such a common cry... Decisions ... they can drive us mad they can bring us to grief they can drive our successes... Yet so many people don't know how to make the right decisions. But is there a single formula for 'making the right decision'? Unfortunately...no. I only know what works for me, which is usually a combination of approaches. The first thing I do is pray to God for guidance. (religious approach) The second is to gather as much info about the issue as I can from books, people etc. The idea is to reach some sort of 'critical mass'... (common sense approach) The third is list down all my choices from 1 to 10 and start writing out the consequences for each choice. (classic counselling approach) The fourth is cross out the 'dumb' or 'crazy' choices that have unacceptable consequences. The fifth is pray ... and go to sleep. (Roslyn'...